I took a lunchtime trip into central Bristol yesterday to visit the Kin Yip Hon oriental supermarket, which I've mentioned here before. I'd run out of my favourite Korean Shin Ramyun noodles, and this is the only place I know of that sells them. Tragically, however, they only had one packet left, so I had to stock up with a pick'n'mix selection of other brands instead.
Now I'm sure these will all be very nice, but they're just not the same. So I got to thinking: surely in these multicultural times there must be an online Oriental supermarket of some sort? And, well, it turns out there is. In fact I expect there are probably several, but the one I visited is here, and the particular product I was after is here. Postage and packing costs are relatively high, especially when you consider the unit price of a packet of noodles is 45p, so I'd recommend buying in bulk. I bought 30 packets. Yum.
3 comments:
Hehe - Wing Yip. I stock up at the Croydon branch every time I go back to visit my family and friends (and work, which is still, sadly, based in Croydon). I've yet to visit the Oriental supermarket in Bristol, mainly because up until about 30 seconds ago I didn't know where it was and my colleague who lives/works in Bristol keeps neglecting to take me there. Dunno how big Kin Yip Hon is but Croydon Wing Yip's enormous and has lots of wonderful exotic bits and bobs often including such gems as the Durian fruit which generally only serves to stink the entire warehouse out...which reminds me, I'm looong overdue a visit.
Kin Yip Hon isn't enormous, but it has lots of interesting stuff. And convenient though online shopping is, it's not quite the same as the sights and smells of being there in person. Plus you don't get the staff bellowing across you to each other in Chinese while you're at the checkout.
I don't think they stock durian, though. I lived in Java for a couple of years when I was a child, and that's one smell you never forget.
If you want to get hold of some durian in the south west, I'd recommend you go to Wai Yee Hong,
http://www.waiyeehong.com
which is also in Bristol - so hopefully not to difficult to get to. I must warn you though, because they are air freighted over, they can be very pricey... Failing that, they do have a very good frozen durian (and you don't ahve to buy a whole one then!)
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